Mustafarian Uprising
The Mustafarian Uprising was a brief conflict on Mustafar that followed closely on the heels of the Mustafarian Racial War. It was an attempt by a group of native Mustafarians to unseat their Sith ruler, Darth Exitius, and expel all offworld corporations from Mustafar. Though the Mustafarian Rebellion managed to sack the city of Zion, this aggressive action caused the full might of the Sith to descend upon them. Despite the assistance of sympathetic outsiders they were surrounded and utterly defeated at the city of Fralideja. Seeds of Rebellion In the wake of the Mustafarian Racial War, both Mustafarian subraces had suffered more than a million casualties. This, along with the death or disappearance of racial leaders and the destruction of countless Mustafarian settlements, left their culture in ruins. The Grand Sith Alliance had been expelled during a fierce battle above the planet, and governorship fell to the victorious Sith forces of Darth Exitius. Exitius welcomed offworld corporations to Mustafar, resulting in the rebuilding of Zion as a largely offworlder city. The flood of megacorporations pushed countless local mining guilds out of business. As a result the new generation of Mustafarians found that they had few opportunities for honest work. Many turned to theft and piracy to feed themselves and their families. Out of this chaos rose Veshnim Kanth, a charismatic Southern Mustafarian who pointed to the offworld corporations as the source of Mustafar's woes. Kanth worked hard to erase the hatreds that had incited the Racial War and unite the remaining Mustafarians. A brilliant orator and organizer, Kanth soon rallied around him a substantial group of Mustafarians of both subraces, mostly members of the new generation who had been too young to fight in the Racial War. This group took to calling themselves the Mustafarian Rebellion, with the stated goal of driving the Sith government and all offworld corporations from the planet. The Rebellion rapidly secured large quantities of weapons and even armored vehicles in preparation for a mass assault on the city of Zion, which was the headquarters for practically all of the corporations that the Rebellion despised as well as the seat of Exitius's government. The Sack of Zion With a large force, including ten modified Juggernauts, the Rebellion struck the city of Zion hard and fast. Mobs of untrained sociopaths and looters swarmed into the city, distracting the Sith, as the Juggernauts began a massive missile bombardment to keep enemy troops pinned down. Kanth led an elite corps through the center of the city, striking a local bank and stealing valuable collectors' items contained within. These items were rapidly brought to Fralideja and then transported offworld to be sold in order to finance the rebellion. But the distraction's effectiveness was at an end. A massive Sith army of battle droids and cloned soldiers supported by armored walkers cut a bloody swath through the rebel force, aided by the Sith warriors Stridal Braeden, Sudelkis the Devourer, and Darth Exitius himself. Exitius also ordered an orbital bombardment, bringing down two of the Juggernauts. Shortly thereafter, Exitius and Kanth encountered one another just outside the looted bank. This was part of Kanth's plan to assassinate the Sith governor; Exitius and his elite forces pursued the rebel leader into the bank, which Kanth rapidly dove out of just as the eight remaining rebel juggernauts fired on the building simultaneously. The structure exploded and collapsed immediately. With Exitius's fate still unknown, Kanth put into motion his plan to cover his force's withdrawal with the stolen treasures. He triggered a poison gas attack in the central square, cutting off Sith forces from his own and creating a screen of civilians between the two clashing armies. At this moment, Exitius reappeared from the smoking building, having detected the danger through the Force and escaped with moments to spare. As he moved to engage Veshnim, the Sith forces stepped up their assault. They fired upon all rebel-held buildings, killing many of their foes but causing further devestation of the city. The massive starship Anubis then descended to hover over the city, forcing the Juggernauts to withdraw. Kanth soon became entrapped between Exitius and Lord Braeden, and though he was a Force Adept and canny fighter he proved no match for the terrible might of the two Sith Lords. Uttering words of defiance and spending the last of his energy fighting, Kanth triggered a signal that prompted remaining rebel forces to either withdraw or hide amongst the civilian population, ending the siege. Aftermath of Zion While Lord Braeden planned to turn the Kanth to the Dark Side and take him as an apprentice, Exitius was enraged by the attack. Ignoring his former master, he wracked the Mustafarian's body with Force Lightning. Kanth awoke due to the pain, but distracted Exitius by telling him that Braeden considered Mustafar his world and cared nothing for what had been lost in the attack. Now raging against Braeden, for he knew that the rebel's words were true, Exitius decided to spare Kanth. He severed the rebel leader's arm as a harsh lesson before transfering him to a local hospital to be groomed as the Sith Lord's apprentice. He had Thorium charges implanted in the rebel's body to force him to obey, then turned and brutally killed another young Force Adept who attempted to free the rebel leader. Meanwhile, rebel forces in Fralideja contacted outsiders who had reason to hate the Sith as well as mercenary groups and hired them to bring aid to the rebellion, which had lost far more than they'd planned for at Zion. They bought new weapons and vehicles, replacing the destroyed Juggernauts, and established a secret base in caves far from any outposts of civilization. Meanwhile, the Sith planned to bring down terrible vengeance on Fralideja for the attack on Zion, mobilizing a massive force to assault the city. The rebellion brought in everything it had left, fortifying the city with trenches and old mining charges and rigging up shield generators. Kanth, still imprisoned, managed to get a message out through agents in Zion that the civilian population should be evacuated into the caves beneath the city. Kanth eventually attempted to escape, using Mechu-Deru and Force Lightning to disarm the implanted charges and reach a transport sent by offworld sympathizers, but died of his wounds on the shuttle. This left E'vir Nittet in command of all rebel forces. Nittet would direct the defense of Fralideja well, but was unable to match Kanth's Force-assisted mastery of command. The Siege of Fralideja Despite all of the preparation the rebels could muster, the outcome of the battle at Fralideja was a foregone conclusion. Though booby traps and clever ambushes wreaked havoc on the Sith ground forces that attempted to advance, this only hastened the city's demise.'' ''The Sith admiral, James Stockwell, brought in the ''Anubis '' for six simultaneous tactical nuclear strikes on the city's major districts. The shields were not nearly strong enough to resist the bombardment, and though some of the population had managed to evacuate as planned the casualties were catastrophic. The rebel forces, dug in around the city's outskirts, largely survived, but countless civilians perished instantly. Sith forces then offered to allow the rebels to surrender immediately or watch as the city was reduced to a nuclear wasteland. E'vir Nittet agreed to surrender on the condition that the Sith would not storm the refuge caverns beneath the city and would allow the rebels to leave the planet via the friendly shuttles without being shot down. The Sith consented to his terms, and most of the remaining population of Fralideja departed. The Mustafarian Rebellion, fearing future retribution, scattered across the galaxy. Aftermath Zion, as the capital for the Sith government, was rapidly rebuilt, though signs of the damage of two wars could be spotted for many years thereafter. Fralideja was not so lucky; rebuilding was slow, and of the original population of two million only a hundred thousand remained in and around the city. Most of them lived in camps among the ruins, just outside the radiation zones. It would be many years before the city recovered, and in the mean time simmering hatred of the Sith who had destroyed the city prompted yet another short-lived uprising that never made it much past the city walls. Ironically, when the city was finally rebuilt it would survive another civil war unscathed. Between the racial war and, ultimately, two uprisings, the Mustafarians were so diminished that they were outnumbered by outsiders on their own homeworld. It would take many years for their population to even begin to recover, and the outcome of these conflicts ensured that they were ground firmly under the Sith heel.